The neck came from a piece of mahogany originally destined to be a level. Bought it on ebay 2 years ago. The box from a local cigar store (no duh!). The fretboard is a 1/8 x 3 x 24" Brazilian rosewood bought at Woodcraft. The bridge is a from a Brazilian rosewood "pen set" also from Woodcraft. Enough for 2 bridges if you don't screw up the first one. The insert nut and bolt from Home Despot. Tuners, bone bone nut and saddle form Stew-Mac. I had some maple lying around from a defunct futton frame. Finally, there is a guy here in Maryland who run a company called Treincarnations which salvages felled trees from private properties. Bought a chunk 6 ft length of 6/4 x 10 inch for about 20 bucks.Tightbond II glue all around
You can check out my shop and other beginning building efforts at
The neck is made by gluing up 2 pieces of the mahogany and cutting out on the shape on a bandsaw. An insert nut was placed in the heel. Neck was shaped with small Stanley #100 plane and a small Grizzly spokeshave. The headstock was thinned with a Safe-T-Planer on my drill press. There is no truss rod or reinforcement on this neck.
The fretboard was laid out for a 14 1/8 scale (based on the size of the box and that I made the neck before actually looking up proper ukulele scale lengths. So the neck meets the body athte 15th fret. Pretty arbitrary. Turns out a guy in Annapolis makes ukes with this length and calls them Mezzo Soprano. Takes Soprano strings just fine. I cut the neck slots on a Stew-Mac miter box with their fret saw.
Glued the fretboard to the neck, shaped the neck and added the frets. Levelledthe frets, using the granite counter top and 120 paper. Crowned with e Stew-Mac fret file.
The body was made by taking of the bottom of the CB and replacing it with a booked matched piece of catalpa, thinned to 0.090" with the Safe-T-Planer. I used a combination of a plane and 120 grit on my granite counter top to get the joint glue ready. After thicknessing and cutting the soundhole with a flycutter, It was sanded to 220 grit. The bracing pattern is sort of random.. Somewhere between an archtop mandolin and a classical guitar. Basically, I was lazy and thought for a first atempt, I'd try to stay simple.
I placed maple strips around the edge of the box and a mahogony neck block glues to the inside edge. On a large peice of granite couter top, I sanded the whole mess flat with 120 sandpaper. I glued on the top and then trimmed the edges flush.
The bridge was cut to size and the two channels, one for the saddle and one for the strings were cut on the bandsaw, by first attaching the saddle to a large block of squared-up wood using double sticky tape. That way, I ended up with ten fingers after I was done. I should say that I drilled the string whole first on the drill press.
The one screw up was that I had the wrong sized "reamer" to open up the 1/4 tuner holes to accept the bushings. Needed a 0.340 and I had a 0.328 from the mandolin project. So when I puhed in the upper bushing, the head stock split. Tightbond and a new reamer fixed, but there is a duling scar left to attest to my rushing to finish.
Now I'm learning some uke peices. Wil post soon. First off to local music store to see what they think the traffic will bear. I've got lots more boxes and mahogony.
I finished the necka nd top with 5 coats of Tru-Oil. Strung
Comments
So some details.
The neck came from a piece of mahogany originally destined to be a level. Bought it on ebay 2 years ago. The box from a local cigar store (no duh!). The fretboard is a 1/8 x 3 x 24" Brazilian rosewood bought at Woodcraft. The bridge is a from a Brazilian rosewood "pen set" also from Woodcraft. Enough for 2 bridges if you don't screw up the first one. The insert nut and bolt from Home Despot. Tuners, bone bone nut and saddle form Stew-Mac. I had some maple lying around from a defunct futton frame. Finally, there is a guy here in Maryland who run a company called Treincarnations which salvages felled trees from private properties. Bought a chunk 6 ft length of 6/4 x 10 inch for about 20 bucks.Tightbond II glue all around
You can check out my shop and other beginning building efforts at
http://weissbuild.blogspot.com
The neck is made by gluing up 2 pieces of the mahogany and cutting out on the shape on a bandsaw. An insert nut was placed in the heel. Neck was shaped with small Stanley #100 plane and a small Grizzly spokeshave. The headstock was thinned with a Safe-T-Planer on my drill press. There is no truss rod or reinforcement on this neck.
The fretboard was laid out for a 14 1/8 scale (based on the size of the box and that I made the neck before actually looking up proper ukulele scale lengths. So the neck meets the body athte 15th fret. Pretty arbitrary. Turns out a guy in Annapolis makes ukes with this length and calls them Mezzo Soprano. Takes Soprano strings just fine. I cut the neck slots on a Stew-Mac miter box with their fret saw.
Glued the fretboard to the neck, shaped the neck and added the frets. Levelledthe frets, using the granite counter top and 120 paper. Crowned with e Stew-Mac fret file.
The body was made by taking of the bottom of the CB and replacing it with a booked matched piece of catalpa, thinned to 0.090" with the Safe-T-Planer. I used a combination of a plane and 120 grit on my granite counter top to get the joint glue ready. After thicknessing and cutting the soundhole with a flycutter, It was sanded to 220 grit. The bracing pattern is sort of random.. Somewhere between an archtop mandolin and a classical guitar. Basically, I was lazy and thought for a first atempt, I'd try to stay simple.
I placed maple strips around the edge of the box and a mahogony neck block glues to the inside edge. On a large peice of granite couter top, I sanded the whole mess flat with 120 sandpaper. I glued on the top and then trimmed the edges flush.
The bridge was cut to size and the two channels, one for the saddle and one for the strings were cut on the bandsaw, by first attaching the saddle to a large block of squared-up wood using double sticky tape. That way, I ended up with ten fingers after I was done. I should say that I drilled the string whole first on the drill press.
The one screw up was that I had the wrong sized "reamer" to open up the 1/4 tuner holes to accept the bushings. Needed a 0.340 and I had a 0.328 from the mandolin project. So when I puhed in the upper bushing, the head stock split. Tightbond and a new reamer fixed, but there is a duling scar left to attest to my rushing to finish.
Now I'm learning some uke peices. Wil post soon. First off to local music store to see what they think the traffic will bear. I've got lots more boxes and mahogony.
I finished the necka nd top with 5 coats of Tru-Oil. Strung
Nice looking and sounding uke. Suggestion: Play it longer for us and put your excellent description in type form with the video.